Complexes, hospital spruce their grounds

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, February 24, 2010

* UPGRADED HOUSING

Two Beaumont apartment complexes had ribbon cuttings earlier this month to celebrate large-scale renovations at each property.

At Timbers Edge Apartments on Pinchback Road, $3.75 million in upgrades were made to complex buildings, according to a news release from Tunheim Partners. The complex upgraded the interior and exterior of the complex buildings, including landscaping, outdoor patios, a computer room, and updated kitchen appliances and bathrooms as well as sheetrock repairs and new paint.

About $25,000 in improvements were made on each apartment unit.

Similar improvements were made at Seville Apartments on Crow Road, where major renovations included the first floor common space, a new roof, new entry doors and a secured entry system. In individual units, kitchen and bathroom fixtures were updated, new flooring was installed and new doors and shelves were installed.

Renovations at Seville Apartments totaled $2.1 million, or about $23,000 per unit, according to the news release.

* WOMEN'S JOB CORPS

In Orange, the Christian Women's Job Corps Golden Triangle opened its doors Feb. 4 at 2300 41st St.

The center offers free classes to women who want to learn more about personal finance, self esteem, computer skills, resume writing and interviewing. The center also offers a weekly Bible study and one-on-one mentoring. The current session of classes is underway until April 29.

A plethora of local officials and dignitaries gathered Feb. 18 to break ground on CHRISTUS Hospital St. Elizabeth's extensive $3.6 million renovation of its Emergency Department.

The project is to be done in three stages so that customer care remains "seamless" and emergency operations remain efficient in the 18-month renovation, hospital officials said. The emergency department's west side entrance on 14th Street will be reconstructed as the main patient walk-in entrance, separating it from the ambulance entrance on North Street.

The new patient entrance will include larger, more modern waiting rooms and triage, rapid assessment and treatment areas that will offer "a more child-and family-friendly atmosphere," according to CHRISTUS. The project also includes an expansion to the emergency department parking lot.

St. Elizabeth administrator Paul Trevino said the idea behind the project was to keep the visiting public and the ambulance entrances "segregated" to increase efficiency, as well as improve the experience for walk-in visitors and their family members. Trevino said it had been at least 20 years since the hospital had done any extensive renovation of the emergency department.

Since then, new strains have been added to emergency departments as people live longer, as the economy has suffered and people show up at ERs more ill than they had in the past. He said the majority of the work would be done by local contractors.

"For more than 100 years, we have worked to provide compassionate medical care to the residents of Beaumont and its surrounding communities. We feel this investment in our Emergency Department shows our mmitment to providing the best health care services available," he said.